JAMIE HOYLAND: Postponement can have a damaging effect on players

AS a footballer, one of the things you cling to is the weekly routine, and when something comes along to break that it does affect you.

You know each day you are either going to get up and go training or, on Saturdays and Tuesdays, you will have a match.

Your whole week is building up to match days, so when games are called off it throws you off kilter.

Your adrenalin builds up and you want that release of playing.

You don’t want to be going off to train indoors on a Saturday at 3pm, as Bury did after the Accrington postponement, it just doesn’t seem right and can leave you feeling a little flat.

For that to happen the following Tuesday as well, as with Bury’s postponement at Mansfield, that feeling is just intensified.

Assuming Bury’s game at home to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday goes ahead, weather permitting, the players will have gone two weeks without a game.

The effect of that can work both ways, as Bury should be a lot fresher than their opponents, but, as a coach or manager, you fear your players losing that edge and sharpness, as well as their match fitness.

It doesn’t really matter how many training sessions you put on, even matches behind closed doors can’t give you the match fitness you need to compete.

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During times of bad weather, clubs at League Two level, like Bury, can also experience problems finding appropriate facilities to train on.

In my day at Bury, we used to train on a pitch at Goshen which became an absolute quagmire when it rained, even worse than Lower Gigg, which I know has been a problem of late.

There were no 3G pitches in those days so our alternative was on a wooden floor in the hall at Tottington High School.

Five-a-side matches have their place, but not when preparing for a match, so we often had to bite the bullet and wade around Goshen.

So these are all things Bury boss Dave Flitcroft will have had to contend with this week.

Off the pitch though, I would say he should be pretty satisfied with the work he has done.

He seems to have managed to ship out most of the fringe players and has replaced them with people who most definitely want to play for Bury Football Club.

A lot of the players he has recruited have worked under him before, so they know what he wants and can help relate that to the other players in the squad.

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It is also a good sign that, having worked with David before, these players are more than happy to take a step down the divisions to work with him again.

I don’t mind admitting there were some managers I worked under that I wouldn’t have wanted to team up with again, so that certainly puts Dave’s managerial skills in a positive light and I’m sure Bury will soon see the benefit of that in terms of results.

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